The present disclosure relates to single-ended signaling.
Single-ended signaling is commonly used to transmit electrical signals over wires, such as those in contemporary memory systems. In single-ended signaling, a signal represented by a varying voltage is transmitted over a wire. The voltage varies above or below a reference voltage, which is used by a receiver of the signal to determine the digital values represented by the signal. In conventional single-ended signaling, the reference voltage is typically generated, either on-chip or off-chip, to be at the middle of a signal swing.
Conventional single-ended signaling typically has poor efficiency and limited speed. More specifically, conventional single-ended signaling has the disadvantage that (i) the reference voltage has to be generated for the receiver, (ii) it is difficult to match the reference voltage at the receiver with the reference voltage of the transmitter, (iii) noise such as simultaneous switching noise can be generated due to the use of a power supply voltage for signaling, and (iv) it is difficult to control a signal return path, resulting in crosstalk noise.